Estimated Number of Animal and Plant Species on Earth
Believe it or not, there are about 950,000 species of insects
No one knows for sure how many species of animals exist on Earth. In
fact, some 10,000 species of animals are discovered each year, with over
one and a half million species already described. Projections for the
total number of species on Earth range from 2 million to 50 million.
| Animal group | Number of species |
|---|---|
| Vertebrates | |
| Amphibians | 6,199 |
| Birds | 9,956 |
| Fish | 30,000 |
| Mammals | 5,416 |
| Reptiles | 8,240 |
| Subtotal | 59,811 |
| Invertebrates | |
| Insects | 950,000 |
| Molluscs | 81,000 |
| Crustaceans | 40,000 |
| Corals | 2,175 |
| Others | 130,200 |
| Subtotal | 1,203,375 |
| Plants | |
| Mosses | 15,000 |
| Ferns and allies | 13,025 |
| Gymnosperms | 980 |
| Dicotyledons | 199,350 |
| Monocotyledons | 59,300 |
| Green Algae | 3,715 |
| Red Algae | 5,956 |
| Subtotal | 297,326 |
| Others | |
| Lichens | 10,000 |
| Mushrooms | 16,000 |
| Brown Algae | 2,849 |
| Subtotal | 28,849 |
| Total | 1,589,361 |
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